Unbelievable that a relief pitcher, even a closer, would turn down $15M for one year. But then, the Yankees are paying Aroldis Chapman $17M/yr. Just guessing. But maybe Boras is expecting to get Holland signed for 3-4 years for $15M/yr. The idea that anyone, except possibly Scott Boras, would say the Cardinals will be in on a deal like that is ludicrous, especially after Mozeliak just said that he doesn’t want to ‘pay retail’ for a closer.

Chapman, Melancon, and Kimbrel all have big deals and I’m sure Davis is about to get one too. I’m not sure I would put Holland in that category. If he wants that kind of contract I would pass. It would be better to bring back Nicasio, sign Rosy to a two year deal, and see what Alcantara can do. Also, Lyons is pretty solid and maybe Cecil will bounce back.

This is just one of your points, but as we discussed in the rumors thread and I expanded upon in a subscriber article I wrote last week, I believe that signing Rosenthal to a two-year deal is highly unlikely – for a number of reasons.

I feel like our team has a pretty high floor, but a low ceiling. With that in mind, any change, even incremental, can have huge ramifications to our playoff hopes. In this scenario, I don’t mind spending a lot on relief pitching. It’s the last place where we can have a large bump without fundamentally changing the team.

We probably need to add one significant piece to the lineup and use our depth to fill the holes, but I don’t think adding a Donaldson, Martinez, or Stanton really shakes things up.

My point was more that we aren’t losing anyone significant to free agency, etc. Lynn is replaced internally and all our other free agents weren’t significant pieces anymore or already out the door. Our lineup and pitching staff is basically set already. We would only be upgrading if we acquired someone else, rather than filling major holes like SS in 2014, RF in 2015, SP in 2016, or CF last offseason.

Jager, I didn’t care for Duke this time around. He looked finished to me, but it could’ve been the TJ surgery.

At this time though, I do consider the bullpen a weakness for 2018. We should shoot for a couple high-end guys. From 2016 to now, we lost our 7th (Siegrist), 8th (Rosenthal), and 9th (Oh) inning guys, plus had our newcomers perform poorly or get injured (Cecil and Duke).